Mounting arrangements or assemblies for mounting an interior rearview mirror assembly to an interior portion of a vehicle typically include a mounting arm that is pivotally attached to the mirror assembly and/or to a channel mount or mounting base, which in turn mounts to the interior portion of the vehicle. For example, a typical mounting assembly may include a mounting arm with a ball member or spherical member or portion at each end, with one end being pivotally received in a socket at the mirror assembly (or at a toggle portion of the mirror assembly for a prismatic mirror) and the other end being pivotally received in a socket at the mounting channel, which may be secured to a mounting button or the like at the interior surface of the windshield of the vehicle.
Typically, the ball members of the mounting arm are pressed into the respective sockets, such as via a machine or the like, to insert the ball member through the narrowed end of the socket and to secure the ball members within the sockets. The ball members are typically metallic elements at distal ends of a support arm tube, the inner hollow of which is occupied by a spring, and the ball members are received within polymeric sockets and biased via the biasing member or spring to provide the desired clamping or degree of resistance of pivotal movement of the ball member relative to the socket.
It is often desirable to provide an electronic feature in or at a vehicular interior rearview mirror assembly, such as a trainable garage door opener, a compass sensor and/or compass display, a tire pressure monitoring system receiver and/or display and/or the like, often along with the user inputs or buttons or switches associated with such systems and/or displays. The electronic feature or accessory or circuitry is typically connected to a power supply or control of the vehicle, such as via a vehicle wiring harness that may extend from the cabin ceiling or vehicle headliner and may plug into the back of the mirror casing. Although it is known to route a mirror wire extending from the mirror through a support arm of the mirror assembly, such as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,482, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, such routing of the wire through the support arm requires particular mounting components and may be difficult to accomplish.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a mirror wire management system that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.